Rapture Forums - Apostasy in the Local Church

Church on trial for funding pop star's career (and church's connection to Phil Pringle

billiefan2000 — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:04:54 GMT

Singapore's fast-growing Christian community has been shaken by the trial of six evangelical church leaders accused of embezzling more than $S50 million ($40.5 million) to fund the career of US-based pop star Sun Ho.

Ms Ho accompanied her accused husband Kong Hee to the Subordinate Courts, but left before prosecutors alleged funds of the City Harvest Church were diverted into "sham" investments.

Based on Pentecostal teachings the church's "prosperity gospel" encourages the material aspirations of mostly young members.

Ms Ho, whose beautiful voice and daring dance moves propelled her to the top of US charts, is not on trial and early this week was reinstated by Singapore's Commissioner of Charities as City Harvest's executive director after a review found she had not contributed to mismanagement of the church which has affiliates in 48 countries, including Australia.

Pastor Kong, who married Ms Ho 20 years ago, is charged with conspiracy to commit criminal breach of trust in a trial that began before a packed court on Wednesday.

Five other members of the church, three men and two women, also face charges that could carry prison sentences of up to 20 years.

None of the six are yet to say how they will plead and have not yet presented their defence.

The mega-church, one of Singapore's richest and biggest that regularly attracts up to 30,000 worshippers, was co-founded in 1989 by Pastor Kong and Ms Ho, in her early 40s, whose real name is Ho Yeow Sun.

Based on Pentecostal teachings the church's "prosperity gospel" encourages the material aspirations of mostly young members and uses music and drama for praise and worship. It often holds elaborate services resembling pop concerts.

Prosecutors said in an opening statement to the court they had evidence of a "deliberately planned" scheme by the accused to move millions of dollars earmarked for a church building fund to two companies as sham bond investments.

State media reported that $S24 million was allegedly channelled through the companies and another $S26 million was misappropriated to cover up the initial sum.

Lead prosecutor Mavis Chionh said it was "immaterial" whether the accused thought the promotion of Ms Ho's music career would further the broader objectives of the church.

Singapore authorities made clear the charges filed last July were against individuals and the church remained free to continue its services and other activities.

Last weekend Pastor Kong rallied his congregation, telling them that by next year "everything should be over."

"And yes, I do maintain my integrity," he said as worshippers roared their approval.

Pastor Kong was given a standing ovation as he went on stage to deliver his sermon.

More than 50 church members queued overnight for a seat in court to show support for the accused.

Church members have told journalists they trust Pastor Kong to spend their money in any way he saw fit.

Ms Ho, a constant presence beside her husband in the church's early days, resigned her duties in 2003 and started singing to broaden the church's appeal, according to Singapore's media.

Her career took off as she remained involved in fund raising for the church and charity work to help build schools in China.

She released several singles in the US including One With You and Without Love which topped the US Billboard Dance Chart and the UK Music Week Club Chart for weeks in 2007.

Her home is a mansion in Hollywood Hills, California.

The City Harvest Church Sydney was opened in 2005 by John Yun Suk Lee, a graduate of Melbourne University who earlier worked for the church in Singapore, the church's website says. It holds services in North Sydney.

The trial is expected to be adjourned part heard on May 23 and verdicts are not expected until next year.

Read more: Sun Ho's church's leaders on trial on Singapore

Kong Hee 's mentor btw is Phil Pringle (a infamous WOF teacher in Australia who has been no stranger to scandal/controversy

Truth & Trends: Everyman�s church

billiefan2000 — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:39:58 GMT

Truth & Trends: Everyman�s church

Truth & Trends: Everyman’s church | Stand Up for the Truth

As we�ve been talking with various leaders about the challenges Christians in each denomination face, it has become very obvious that no church is exempt from the barrage of trends and ear-tickling temptations.

And while no church is perfect, many are striving to keep the ways of the world at bay, staying the course against the harsh tide of relevance.

Last week we reported about a breach in teaching at some Calvary churches that has many pastors concerned.

LightHouseTrails Blog reports on some concerning challenges facing AOG (Assemblies of God) churches:

Assemblies of God �Believe� Conference Makes Bold Move � Brings in Contemplative Key Player Ruth Haley Barton

This August, in Orlando, Florida, the Assemblies of God USA will be presenting their General Council Conference, which takes place every two years. The title of this year�s event is �BELIEVE.�

Scheduled to speak to �women in ministry� on one of the nights is Ruth Haley Barton. This is a bold move that the Assemblies of God is making because Barton is a major player in bringing contemplative mystical (i.e., mantra-based) prayer into the evangelical church.

The mission statement for the conference is �Believe we are on the cusp of an unparalleled Spiritual awakening.�1 On the conference website, it states:

GENERAL COUNCIL is the Assemblies of God�s largest gathering. It takes place every two years bringing church leaders together from all around the world.2

It also says that the event will inspire encounters with God, shape the Assemblies of God movement, and enhance [AOG leaders] �skills and be inspired to advance the kingdom of God.�

While the Assemblies of God denomination has been going in the contemplative direction for some time, especially within the AOG theological seminary, to bring a major contemplative player in as a speaker to the movement�s main leadership conference illustrates how much AOG has absorbed contemplative spirituality over the last few years especially.

As a little background, in 2005, Lighthouse Trails addressed the issue of contemplative coming into AOG when we discussed Professor Earl Creps, director of the Doctor of Ministry at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary.

Creps is probably one of the earliest figures within the AOG movement to bring contemplative into AOG.

In one document titled �Leading Others and Myself,� Creps lists a number of New Spirituality, emerging church and contemplative proponents as people he turns to.3 A 2006 LT article, �Assemblies of God: Committed to Spiritual Formation, Contemplative and Emerging,� stated:

If Assemblies of God Theological Seminary is any indication, then AOG is heading straight towards contemplative spirituality and the emerging church. Earl Creps . . . is a heavy proponent of both contemplative and emerging.

In his course syllabi over the last five years, Creps has classes with titles such as �Leading the Emerging Church� and �Models of Ministry in the Emerging Church.� Syllabus reading materials include those from Henri Nouwen, Brian McLaren, Ken Blanchard, Dan Kimball, . . . and Leonard Sweet.

A visit to Creps� �Spiritual Adventures� blog gives a hearty helping of emergent discussion. In one blog, Creps tries to show how there might be a union between Pentecostalism and the emerging church [i.e. contemplative], saying the relationship is �gaining some traction.�

As in most cases now, contemplative starts coming into a denomination through seminaries, colleges, and universities, and in time reveals itself in the main body of that movement.

That is now what is happening with AOG bringing in Ruth Haley Barton to the General Council event this year where AOG leaders from around the world will be participating.

For those who have followed Lighthouse Trails, you will know that Barton was trained at the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Washington, DC where she, according to her own words, was �under the guidance of Tilden Edwards, Rosemary Dougherty and Gerald May.�

On Ruth Haley Barton�s Transforming Center website, she enthusiastically acknowledges being trained there, but the site gives a vague and almost oxymoronic disclaimer saying: �While she values all that she has gained from the teachers and institutions in which she has studied, this does not imply endorsement of everything taught in these environments.�4 (emphasis added)

We could talk about the beliefs of Tilden Edwards, Rosemary Dougherty, and Gerald May, but we have in other articles that can be looked up on our research site and read. Basically, these teachers are contemplative mystics who adhere to panentheism and universalism.

It was Edwards who said that, �This mystical stream [contemplative prayer] is the Western bridge to Far Eastern spirituality (Spiritual Friend, p. 18). In other words, contemplative spirituality draws all religions together in unity under the common denominator of mysticism.

Who is Ruth Haley Barton?

After Barton finished her training at the Shalem Institute, she became the Associate Director of Spiritual Formation at Willow Creek Community Church and co-authored (with John Ortberg)

a Spiritual Formation curriculum for Willow Creek. In time, Ortberg moved on to become pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian in California, and Barton left to found the Transforming Center, which claims to train thousands of pastors and leaders in the contemplative way.

She has written a number of books � virtually all having the core message that you gain intimacy with God through the silence (that is her predominant message).

Some of these books are: Invitation to Solitude and Silence (foreword by Dallas Willard), Sacred Rhythms, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership, and one of her more recent ones Pursuing God�s Will Together: A Discernment Practice for Leadership Groups.

So what is it exactly that Barton teaches? In a Christianity Today article titled �Drawing Closer to God,� Barton describes the practice of contemplative prayer, saying, �Ask for a simple prayer to express your willingness to meet God in the silence . . . a simple statement . . . such as �Here I am. . . . � Help yourself return to your original intent by repeating the prayer that you have chosen.�

In Barton�s popular book, Invitation to Solitude and Silence, she goes into more depth:

� Identify your sacred space and time. Explore all the possibilities for a time and physical space in which you can be alone on a regular basis (p. 40).

� Begin with a modest goal, especially if silence is a new practice for you. Ten, fifteen or twenty minutes of time spent in actual silence is realistic, depending on such factors as your personality, pace of life, reliance on words and activity (p. 41).

� Settle into a comfortable yet alert physical position (p. 41).

� Ask God to give you a simple prayer that expresses your openness and desire for God. Choose a prayer phrase that expresses your desire or need for God these days in the simplest terms possible. It is best if the prayer is not more than six to eight syllables so that it can be prayed very naturally in the rhythm of your breathing.

Pray this prayer several times as an entry into silence and also as a way of dealing with distractions. Distractions are inevitable, so when they come, simply let them go by like clouds floating across the sky. Help yourself return to the prayerful intent by repeating the prayer you have chosen.

Use your prayer phrase for as long as it captures what is most true about your heart�s desire for God, and link it with a body posture that also helps you express your spiritual desire (pp. 41-42).

In regard to Barton�s disclaimer on her website, she can say that she does not endorse everything she was taught at Shalem Institute, but the fact of the matter is what she just described above is the essence of what Shalem believes and teaches.

Everything they teach stems from this mystical prayer. Perhaps she is implying that she does not adhere to their panentheistic (God in all) and universalist (all are saved) views, but that would be ironic because these are the things that are produced by practicing contemplative prayer. Ray Yungen calls them the �fruit� of contemplative prayer. In A Time of Departing, Yungen discusses Shalem and its role in Barton�s spiritual life.

He includes a quote found on Shalem�s website to show the underlying roots of Shalem�s ultimate goal:

In Christianity and other traditions that understand God to be present everywhere, contemplation includes a reverence for the Divine Mystery, �finding God in all things,� [panentheism] or �being open to God�s presence, however it may appear. (5)

Yungen shares his concerns about Ruth Haley Barton:

�[Barton] echoes [goddess worshipper] Sue Monk Kidd in many ways, including the general malaise or condition of the human soul. Barton recounts:

A few years ago, I began to recognize an inner chaos in my soul . . . No matter how much I prayed, read the Bible, and listened to good teaching, I could not calm the internal roar created by questions with no answers. (�Beyond Words�)

�The following scenario Barton relates could be the wave of the future for the evangelical church if this movement continues to unfold in the manner it already has:

I sought out a spiritual director, someone well versed in the ways of the soul . . . eventually this wise woman said to me, . . . �What you need is stillness and silence so that the sediment can settle and the water can become clear.� . . . I decided to accept this invitation to move beyond my addiction to words (�Beyond Words�)

�By �addiction to words� [Barton] means normal ways of praying. She still uses words, but only three of them, �Here I am.� This is nothing more than the Cloud of Unknowing or [Henri Nouwen's] prayer of the heart.

Like Richard Foster, Barton argues that God cannot be reached adequately, if at all, without the silence. In referring to I Kings 19 when Elijah was hiding in a cave, Barton encourages:

God loves us enough to wait for us to come openly to Him.

Elijah�s experience shows that God doesn�t scream to get our attention. Instead, we learn that our willingness to listen in silence opens up a quiet space in which we can hear His voice, a voice that longs to speak and offer us guidance for our next step. (�Beyond Words�)

�What Barton fails to mention here is that Elijah was a valiant defender of the belief in the one, unique God � Yahweh (as seen in his encounter with the 450 prophets of Baal), and he never went into an altered state of silence in his personal encounter with God.� (A Time of Departing, 2nd. ed., pp. 172-173)

Those reading this who are skeptical about what we are saying may be asking, �What�s so wrong about repeating a word or phrase and going into an altered state of silence?�

To this we answer, this state of silence is the same state that occultists and Eastern meditation practitioners enter when practicing transcendental meditation (TM).

We can prove this by the words of one of the men who trained Ruth Haley Barton � Gerald May (from Shalem Institute). May wrote the foreword to a book titled Zen for Christians. In that book, he says the following:

I began to explore Eastern religions . . . I was taking my spiritual business elsewhere. Or so I thought. What surprised me, eventually, was that my foray into Buddhism led me in a kind of circle, back to my Christian roots.

Over time, Buddhist practices [meditation] somehow revealed to me the rich resources of Christian contemplative tradition that had been there all along . . . I was not alone in that experience. . .

[Those on the contemplative road] in their searching, many turned toward the East and experienced exactly what I had � an eventual discovery of deep nourishment [Eastern enlightenment] within their own original traditions. The phenomenon happened so frequently that we gave it a name: �pilgrimage home.�

May was correct in stating that so-called �Christian� contemplative prayer is the same as Buddhist meditation. As one adherent admitted, �The meditation of advanced occultists is identical with the prayer of advanced mystics� (Kirby, Mission of Mysticism, p. 7).

Who are the �advanced mystics�?

There are plenty of them, names you probably know: Henri Nouwen, Richard Foster, Thomas Merton, Richard Rohr, and to that list we add Ruth Haley Barton.

Consider this: On Barton�s website, she sells books by Catholic priest and contemplative activist Richard Rohr.

In addition, she quotes him (in a prominent spot) in her recent book Pursuing God�s Will Together from his book,

Everything Belongs. Typical of other contemplatives, such as Thomas Merton, Rohr believes that everything is connected together and that all is divine (thus, everybody belongs to the kingdom of God). In his 2011 book, Falling Upward, Rohr implies that we all are �immaculate conception[s]� (p. ix). If these things are true, then there was no need for Jesus Christ to die on the Cross for the sins of mankind.

We would not need a Savior because we would already be divine ourselves. In truth, contemplative spirituality is the antithesis of the Gospel. That is why there are countless mystics who claim to know God (or Jesus) but will have nothing to do with the Cross.

In a YouTube teaching video by Barton, she tells viewers,

�You have nothing to lose and a whole lot to gain [if you follow her instructions],� but we say you have everything to lose and nothing to gain if you go down the contemplative path. Sadly, instead of being on the �cusp of an unparalleled Spiritual Awakening,�

it appears that the Assemblies of God is going to be losing �a whole lot� in the days to come as they further open themselves to the contemplative �silence� and the spiritual deception that accompanies it. Our warning here is to be taken seriously. William Shannon, Thomas Merton�s biographer, validated our concern when he made the following observation:

If one wants to understand Merton�s going to the East it is important to understand that it was his rootedness in his own faith tradition [Catholicism] that gave him the spiritual equipment [contemplative prayer] he needed to grasp the way of wisdom that is proper to the East. (Silent Lamp, p. 281)

This is what Tilden Edwards meant by the bridge to Far Eastern spirituality. Merton didn�t become a Buddhist; rather he grasped the way that �is proper to the East.�

That is how Merton, as a Catholic monk, could say,

�I intend to become as good a Buddhist as I can.�* In other words, while you don�t become a Buddhist, you absorb the Buddhist view into your Christianity. This is the underlying herald cry of the contemplative prayer movement, and it is something that can never be reconciled with the message of the Cross.

The ironic thing is that the Assemblies of God has traditionally held to the biblical view of the end times whereas contemplative spirituality lines up with a universal world religion, which will encompass all humanity and unite under the man of sin.

There has never been anything on the scene before that would allow a universal religion that appeals to people on a broad scale. But first people have to hook up to the common factor and binding agent of this one-world religion, and that is contemplative prayer!

Truth & Trends: Everyman’s church | Stand Up for the Truth

Definitions question

survivor3x — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:52:10 GMT

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to post a thread defining the following:

Falling Away from True Bible Faith
Misguided Shepherds
Word of Faith
Works
Seeker Services
Purpose Driven Movement, etc.

And if there are more I'm unaware of.

I'm unsure exactly what false doctrines many of these "movements" preach, but I'd like to know what they mean. I would greatly appreciate any information. Thanks!

FFTF radio for 5-14-2013: Emergent Tony Jones and...

billiefan2000 — Tue, 14 May 2013 22:16:35 GMT

On today's FFTF radio show Pirate Christian Radio

Chris R is talking about

emergent church leader Tony Jones

Barna Group article/interview on Why Young Christians are leaving the Church

sermon review from Destin Florida "church"

will post archived link for show from Fighting for the Faith

when Chris R posts the archive link

Brannon Howse: why is Francis Chan and Tim LaHaye supporting False Teachers???

billiefan2000 — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:40:11 GMT

Brannon Howse: Aired May 13, 2013 | Worldview Weekend

Mike Gendron joins Brannon on this program.

Topic: Francis Chan apologizes to his church, visiting Catholics and the secular media after former Catholic Mike Gendron finishes a message on the Biblical gospel.

Chan shut down the meeting and stopped any question and answer time from taking place and then publically announced his regret for inviting Mike to speak at his church. The apology was covered in the secular news the next day.

Topic: What message was Chan sending to the unsaved followers of the false gospel of the Church of Rome? Can Chan be trusted as a minister of the gospel?

Topic: Hear the recent audio of Chan speaking before Rick Warren’s church and hear him praise false teacher Rick Warren.

Is this just one of many examples of why Chan should not be promoted by Biblical Christians?

Topic: How are other evangelicals pushing ecumenicalism whether they know it or not?

Topic: Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins have the Pope raptured in the first Left Behind book?

Topic: LaHaye defends Christians working with Glenn Beck and admonishes those that are warning of uniting in spiritual enterprises with Beck?

Topic: LaHaye got up after Mike Gendron spoke at the Steeling the Mind Conference and urged the audience not to believe Gendron’s Biblical teaching?

Topic: LaHaye stops Brannon from speaking at a conference in December of 2012 even though Brannon was going to speak on the threat of false teaching and the dangers of the New Apostolic Reformation?

Topic: Evangelicals are dividing the church by defending false teaching, false teachers, and attacking those that are lovingly pointing out false teachers and false teaching as Biblically commanded to do so.

Topic: We take your calls.

FFTF radio: False Prophets Patricia King & Johnny Enlow Discuss 7 Mountain Strategies

billiefan2000 — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:25:06 GMT

May 13, 2013

Are Saints An Elite Class of Christian?

Program segments:

� Patricia King & Johnny Enlow Discuss 7 Mountain Strategies
� Pope Francis Canonizes 800 New Saints
� Steven Furtick Answers the Question "Did God Make a Mistake?"
� Sermon Review: What If? by Heath Mooneyham of Ignite Church

Fighting for the Faith: Are Saints An Elite Class of Christian?

Question about Hillsong music

guru03 — Sun, 12 May 2013 16:45:03 GMT

One of my academic team teammates one day was listening to the band Hillsong. Are the lyrics to Hillsongs music biblically sound? Should I be concerned about this?

Seacoast Church

guru03 — Sun, 12 May 2013 16:40:02 GMT

First of all, I'm really happy at my church and plan on staying there, but I have some questions about a particular church.

I am really curious about this church in Charleston called Seacoast Church based down in Mount Pleasant, SC as I have had some communication with a campus pastor about me witnessing to a close friend of mine. I know Seacoast is multi-site though, so my question might depend on the campus.

1) Is Seacoast Church a biblically solid church?

2) Does Seacoast church have bibically sound doctrine?

3) Is Seacoast Church emergent and/or seeker sensitive?

4) Is the senior pastor of Seacoast, Greg Surratt,
A) emergent or seeker sensitive?
B) a false teacher?
C) Is he a part of the purpose driven movement or the willow creek movement?

5) Is Greg Surratt a(n) safe/okay/good preacher to listen to?

6) For those of you who have attended Seacoast Church, what was it like?

Thanks for your time in helping me out with this in advance.

FFTF radio for 5-10-2013: seeker driven church stunts on Mothers day and...

billiefan2000 — Fri, 10 May 2013 22:17:39 GMT

On today's FFTF radio show Pirate Christian Radio

Chris R is talking about

seeker driven church stunts on Mothers day

(seeker driven church stunts on Mothers Day is stuff like this from a "church" in Oklahoma a few years back

will post archived link for show from Fighting for the Faith

when Chris R posts the archive link

FFTF radio for 5-9-2013: seeker driven "pastors" Kerry Shook and Andy Stanley and....

billiefan2000 — Thu, 09 May 2013 22:49:23 GMT

On today's FFTF radio show Pirate Christian Radio

Chris R is talking about

seeker driven pastor Kerry Shook

Dearborn Michigan

seeker driven pastor Andy Stanley

emergent church leader Rob Bell

and

will post archived link for show from Fighting for the Faith

when Chris R posts the archive link

FFTF radio host: I remember when Jesus used to be really a big deal in Christian churches...

billiefan2000 — Thu, 09 May 2013 18:01:07 GMT

I remember when Jesus used to be really a big deal in Christian churches, not anymore. I miss the good ol' days and I miss that Jesus fella.

https://twitter.com/piratechristian/...41365193961472

https://twitter.com/piratechristian/...505088/photo/1

Celebrity Psychic and "Prophet" Sylvia Browne under fire for telling Amanda Berry�s mom she was dead

billiefan2000 — Thu, 09 May 2013 16:12:55 GMT

p.s. this should be a bigger story in the media.

It way over time that John Edwards and Sylvia Browne and Rebecca Rosen and James Van Praagh and Maureen Hancock to name a few so called famous psychics.

exposed as frauds.

whether it be psychics, or False Prophets like Cindy Jacobs and Todd Bentley or Rick Joyner or Mike Bickle or Patricia King, sadly many christians follow folks like them.

================================================== ==============================

Celebrity psychic Sylvia Browne under fire for telling Amanda Berry�s mom she was dead

By Hollie McKay

Published May 09, 2013

LOS ANGELES � In the days since Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight emerged from their decade-long captivity in a home in Cleveland, Ohio, celebrity psychic Sylvia Browne has come under scrutiny for her incorrect prediction regarding Berry�s fate.

In 2004, the year following the then 16-year-old schoolgirl�s disappearance, Browne appeared on �The Montel Williams� show

and told Berry�s distraught mother Louwana Miller � who died from heart failure a year later � that her daughter was �in heaven and on the other side� and that her last words were �goodbye, mom, I love you.�

Turns out Browne was wrong, and thousands of people have flooded her Facebook page to tell her what they think.

�Sylvia is a con artist and commits fraud for financial gain,� commented one, as another weighed in: �You should be ashamed of yourself....

why would anybody believe anything you have to say after this??

All you do is rip money off the weak minded people.�

Another wrote �YOU are the worst kind of predator, offering people hope where there is none,� while several called Browne everything from a �fraud� and a �lying rat� to a �scammer� and a �fake.�

�Sylvia sees dead people,� wrote another. �Only they�re not dead.�

Browne has created quite a business as a spiritual leader:

she�s published 45 books over the years, runs the �Sylvia Browne Hypnosis Training Center� in Northern California, and has phone psychic reading fee of $850, currently discounted to $550.

In response to the criticism, Browne's rep released a statement asserting that for nearly six decades,

Browne has dedicated her life to helping individuals, families and law enforcement agencies on hundreds of high-profile criminal investigations, and received numerous commendations for her the �positive impact her contributions have provided.�

�For more than 50 years as a spiritual psychic and guide, when called upon to either help authorities with missing person cases or to help families with questions about their loved ones, I have been more right than wrong,� Browne herself insisted. �

If ever there was a time to be grateful and relieved for being mistaken, this is that time. Only God is right all the time.�

We�re told that Sherry Cole, Amanda Berry's cousin, also reached out to Browne on Wednesday to offer support.

�Our family in no way blames Sylvia. This doesn�t change anything. We still love her and believe in her,� Cole stated, according to Browne�s team.

Amongst the intense backlash, there were at least a few fans defending Browne�s psychic abilities.

�You can�t be right all the time. You would have to be God,� observed a Facebook follower, as another noted that �everyone makes mistakes.�

Earlier this year, Browne told FOX411's Pop Tarts column that she has had her �spirit guide� for 70 years, and that her �God-given gift� is simply in her DNA.

�I was just born this way. Why did Beethoven create symphonies and everything? Why did he play the piano when he was three years old? I was just born with this,� she said.

�My grandmother was and my mother was and my son is, and we go back three hundred years. It may be a genetic thing.�

Read more: Celebrity psychic Sylvia Browne hit for telling mom of Amanda Berry she was dead | Fox News

Emergent and Contemplative Prayer promoter Dallas Willard dead at 77

billiefan2000 — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:50:55 GMT

Dallas Willard dead at 77 | Stand Up for the Truth

Dallas Willard dead at 77

Dallas Willard, whom many credit for promoting contemplative prayer, has passed away.

Dallas Albert Willard was born on 4 September 1935 and educated at Baylor University, the William Jewell College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Sadly, his legacy also includes not only propagating Contemplative spirituality into the Church along with his mentor, Richard Foster, but also opining that one does not need to be a Christian or know of Jesus to be saved.

Below is audio of a segment from Fighting for the Faith in which Christian apologist Christ Rosebrough reviews and challenges Dallas Willard and his version of the gospel.

Fighting for the Faith: Is Dallas Willard a Christian?

Dallas Willard giving a Ministry in Contemporary Culture Seminar

Christian Today reports:

Philosopher and author on spiritual formation Dallas Willard has died at the age of 77. His death comes just days after it was revealed he was battling stage 4 cancer.

Many Christians credit his works, notably �Divine Conspiracy�, with helping them reinvigorate and rethink how they live out their faith.

Tributes have been pouring in on Twitter since news of his death emerged:

Rick Warren (‏@RickWarren)
A great saint, Dallas Willard,had gone on to heaven. Angels are rejoicing.

Mark Russell (‏@markrusselluk)
Gutted by Dallas Willard�s death. He was a wonderful author and his books always challenged and inspired me

Fuller Seminary (@Fuller)

Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Dallas Willard, who passed away today at the age of 77 after battling cancer.

World Vision (@WV_Churches)
Our prayers to his family RT @CTmagazine Dallas Willard died this morning, just days after announcing he had cancer

Other fans took to Twitter to express their appreciation for Willard:

Jon Soper ‏(@jonsoper)
Dallas Willard, an exceptional follower of Jesus, died today. Learned so much from him.

Peter Ould (@PeterOuld)
RIP and Rise in Glory Dallas Willard. Heard him speak in Oxford years ago. Excellent chap.

Martin Saunders ‏(@martinsaunders)
Oh no, Dallas Willard has died. What an incredible man. His writing has been formational for so many. Sad day

Dallas Willard dead at 77 | Stand Up for the Truth

Third Orlando Florida area Pastor to resign in last 6 months cause of a affair...

billiefan2000 — Wed, 08 May 2013 23:53:41 GMT

PRAY FOR ORLANDO FLORIDA

================================================== ===

Orlando Megachurch Pastor David Loveless Admits Affair, Resigns
1:57PM EDT 5/7/2013 Jennifer LeClaire

David Loveless (Vimeo)
In the wake of an affair, David Loveless has stepped down from his lead pastor role at Discovery Church.

Loveless’ resignation was announced to the Orlando, Fla., megachurch over the weekend.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the immediate resignation of our lead pastor, David Loveless, following his acknowledgement of his participation in a wrongful relationship over multiple years with a woman not his wife,” church elders wrote in a statement.

“While David indicates that the relationship was ended approximately three years ago, we were only made aware of it when he informed us in recent days.

David offered his resignation, and the elders prayerfully and unanimously accepted it.”

Loveless has handed over his pastoral responsibilities to Don Cousins, director of ministry.

In the statement, the elders noted that this is a difficult circumstance for any church, regardless of size, and serves as a poignant reminder of the frailty of man and the need to live in honest community and accountability with other believers.

“While we believe David Loveless can be restored to Christian fellowship and productive Christian service, we do not believe he can serve as a pastor at Discovery Church,” the statement said.

The elders then offered a list of prayers for Loveless and the church.

Loveless is the third Orlando pastor to step down in light of an affair in the past six months.

He follows Isaac Hunter, former lead pastor at Summit Church, and Sam Hinn, former pastor of the Gathering Place Worship Center.

Orlando Megachurch Pastor David Loveless Admits Affair, Resigns

FFTF radio for 5-7-2013: Rob Bell and William Tapley and the New Legalism and...

billiefan2000 — Tue, 07 May 2013 22:16:53 GMT

On today's FFTF radio show Pirate Christian Radio

Chris R is talking about

False Prophet William Tapley

discussion article from World Magazine called the New Legalism (and missional pastors like Willow Creek Association pastor Craig Groeschel

Emergent Church leader Rob Bell

a sermon review from seeker driven Northpoint Church in Springfield Missouri (aka Tommy Sparger 's former "church"

will post archived link for show from Fighting for the Faith

when Chris R posts the archive link